Boma, Connolly drop big bombs on Blue Devils

Trojans score Interstate Eight victory

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By Erich Murphy

Pontiac Daily Leader - Pontiac, IL

By Erich Murphy

Posted Dec. 8, 2012 at 1:11 AM

By Erich Murphy
Posted Dec. 8, 2012 at 1:11 AM

Dwight

One sophomore hadn’t played all night but came in and knocked down a big shot. Another sophomore had played most of the game and came through with a couple of big plays that pushed Dwight to a 58-53 victory over Peotone in an Interstate Eight Conference basketball game Friday night at Kresl Gymnasium.

Caleb Boma connected on a lead changing 3-pointer and then came up with huge steal that led to a pair of clutch free throws to give the Trojans some breathing room down the stretch.

“In the second half, you could almost see Caleb growing up right there on the court,” DTHS head coach Eric Long said. “(Peotone) is as good a man-to-man team as there is out there and for him to handle the clutch situation as well as he did was absolutely big time.”

Boma’s triple came from the top of the key after the Trojans had worked the ball deep inside. Carson Banks had the ball down low and then kicked it out to a wide-open Boma, who drilled the shot that gave Dwight a 48-46 lead.

This came with 2:50 left in the game and about 30 seconds after the other sophomore had connected on his big shot.

Dwight was trailing 45-42 after Triston Dircks fouled out. He was the second DTHS player forced to ride the pines after picking up their fifth foul. Blake Huseman had fouled out 13 seconds earlier. An injury to another guard created a depth issue.

Devin Connolly solved the problem when he came in after sitting all night and calmly drained a 3-pointer from the corner to cut the DTHS deficit to 46-45 with 3:17 to go in the game.

Boma then hit his triple and, after Peotone head coach Cory Dillard used a timeout, came up with a steal and was fouled.

Boma canned both tosses to push Dwight’s lead to 50-46. Connolly and Boma — as well as Ryley Christoff — each made two more charity tosses in the final 42 seconds to seal the win.

“When we had opportunities, we capitalized. That shows huge progress for a young team,” Long said. “(Connolly) came in and knocked a 3 down and hit a couple of free throws in the end.”

The ending was much more exciting to Dwight fans than the beginning, when the Trojans ran into trouble against the Blue Devils’ defense. DTHS turned the ball over 10 times in the first quarter and 26 times for the game — but only three came in the fourth quarter.

Page 2 of 2 - “We’ve got to do a better job of taking care of the ball, but I thought late in the game was the best we took care of the ball,” Long said. “That was a key to the win because we were shooting well from the line.”

Peotone jumped out to an 18-8 lead in the quarter but began feeling the effects of a tightly called battle. Both teams reached the bonus before the first quarter concluded.

The Trojans only took 11 shots from the field in the first half primarily because they were either turning the ball over or going to the free throw line.

DTHS was 17 of 23 from the line in the first half and finished at 29-for-37 for the game.

“I thought this was a game, with the ups and downs, with the strangeness of play going on, you had to be mentally tough to keep the concentration level and I thought we did that,” Long said.

Dwight’s first “up” started with five seconds left in the first quarter when Huseman scored in transition to cut the deficit to 18-10. These were the first points of what became an 11-0 run.

Huseman’s 3-pointer with 5:48 tied the game at 18-18 and Christoff made a free throw for Dwight’s first lead. The game stayed close the rest of the way.